I would like to thank you all for your interest. I do this for fun
and to work on my creative writing skills in English but seeing that there are
so many others who enjoy my work makes me write so much more and better. Thank
you.

Also, apologies for the delay. Life happened and did so in a pretty
bad way. I will try to catch up and publish two more chapters by the middle of
June.

Like always, I would like to thank Type-Moon and Kinoko Nasu for
creating the Fate universe. They own it, not me, I'm just borrowing it for your
enjoyment and no profit.

Also I would like to thank two nameless guests in the reviews. While
I don't agree that I am ripping off ThirdFang's take on the magic system (a
small rant regarding this at the end of the chapter) it did make me go and
re-read the wiki and Magic Circuits, Heroic Spirits and Noble Phantasms.

You will notice that the Clocktower in this chapter isn't really
canon. As it isn't the focus of the visual novels and anime, I went with the
bare bones and tried to make it fun.

Anyway, let's hop right in.

Fonts used:

"Speech."

Thoughts.

"Arias and other Mysteries."

"Higher beings speaking, overpowered Mysteries."

Enjoy, full notes at the end of the chapter.

Falling Headfirst into Place

Shirou, being the kind of boy he was, didn't have many real
passions. The usual problems of a thirteen-year-old such as acne, girls,
growing sexual awareness, swinging moods and self-esteem barely bothered him.
Well, the girls thing did but not so much girls in general as the two
particular ones that seemed to have taken a liking to him. Sakura was more or
less fine, if you didn't count her flabbergasting disregard for herself
(something he really couldn't ignore in good conscience) but Tohsaka was a
veritable maelstrom of emotion and genius-logic. He mainly dealt with her by being
far-far away whenever the fuses blew.

But some things did bother him.

"Sir, why is the Clock Tower called the Clock Tower is it's not a
clock tower?"

The teacher grimaced, and the blond girl at the table beside his – a
rather arrogant noble by the name of Luvia Edelfelt – started banging her
head against the cover of her history book. The other three students in the
classroom groaned in resignation.

"Now, now, calm down, class. We are discussing the history of the
Association and it is a legitimate question."

Shirou was in the middle of one of his two weeks-long training trips
to England. Whatever deal his father had made actually worked, somewhat to
Dietrich's surprise. Perhaps the Magus Killer had been able to find some of the
few trustworthy influential people but it was more likely that it was Waver's
growing influence combined with the light nature of the request that caused the
agreement to be honored: Waver, now a Lord, became Shirou's patron and not too
many questions were asked by the faculty despite the fact that the boy didn't
exactly enroll; instead, he came for a couple weeks several times a year to do
what could only be described as binge learning.

The original plan had been for him to stay as unnoticeable as possible:
to get what he couldn't find in Fuyuki quietly and return home. Unfortunately,
that plan had a major hole in it.

Shirou couldn't tolerate lapses in logic in what he was taught. It
had caused him problems with the Japanese education system in the past but the
Association was much worse: except for the few well-studied and documented
areas of Magecraft, a lot of the curriculum turned out to be about very
shallowly studied fields full of murky conjecture and pure speculation.
Unfortunately, in his opinion, history was one of those fields. It was astounding
how a society allegedly headed by an immortal and one that had records dating
back hundreds, if not thousands of years could include so much hearsay and
plain contradicting facts.

Shirou would have skipped all that junk completely but that would
have made him stand out even more, so instead he turned to asking for
clarifications whenever he had questions. Both the group and the young and
somewhat bored teacher tried to ignore him at first but quickly found out that
short of throwing him out of the room there was no way to keep the teen away
from getting to the bottom of things. So, reluctantly, they endured.

Luvia had it the worst since from the very first day she had loudly
declared that she and Shirou were going to be best friends. She hated it when
he and his weirdness made the class spend half an hour on some skippable piss
of trivia but couldn't really say anything with Shirou being her proclaimed
bestie.

"While it is true that the Clock Tower is not a tower nowadays, it
was one in the past. Until 1941, in fact, when the Director and the head of the
Barthomeloi family destroyed the original structure when moving everything
underground. In the old days the Clock Tower was a mansion at the heart of
London, sporting an actual clock tower – a magnificent one. It was warded to
appear a boring, ordinary building to anyone who didn't have properly opened
Circuits but to Magi it was a beacon, promising knowledge and a safe haven.
During those times not only the Association but also the less benign denizens
of the supernatural world had to worry a lot less about secrecy and proper
clean-up, which made a certain degree of… advertising the location useful. You
could live near the Clock Tower and be sure you wouldn't wake up to find a Dead
Apostle munching on your children."

The man sighed and righted his glasses.

"But technology advanced, making possible more and more phenomena
that previously had been thought to be something only Magecraft could
accomplish at reasonable cost. Steam power. Electricity. Radio. Planes. It
became clear that very soon we wouldn't be able to hide our activities
completely without spending a ridiculous amount of resources on concealment.
And so, only some of the dorms and a few secondary buildings remain above while
the rest is now underground, like this classroom."

"The layout is a nightmare, though. Even finding a room…" Luvia
noted.

The teacher chuckled:

"The complex is built upon a hub of Ley Lines, Miss Edelfelt, as you
well know. It was very difficult for the original builders to dig all the
tunnels and the rooms without cutting those. I'm afraid, comfort was never a
concern. Now, where was I before all this… Right, the current relations between
the Association and the British government…"

###

Shirou rather liked England. Often he would walk the streets of
London at night in a dark hoodie, avoiding the streetlights. He kept a very
noticeable knife under his jacket and, combined with his athletic build, he
never ran into any trouble with the criminal element: no one was interested in
an armed teen in worn clothes wandering the streets. Once he had been stopped
by a constable but the blade was a Projection and he dismissed it before being
approached. He got off with some sincere advice to stay at home at night.

It was a strange feeling – to be an outsider. Shirou had always been
different: he was a Magus, he was deeply scarred, he was raised in an abnormal
family. But this time it wasn't just that: in Fuyuki he always felt entwined:
Dietrich, school, Sakura and Rin, his studies, the upcoming Holy Grail War –
without noticing it, he had formed bonds with the city and the people living in
it. Without knowing, he had come to look at himself through the roles he
played: a student, a friend, a little brother, a… whatever he was to the girls
in his life.

Being literally on the other side of the Earth he felt profoundly
disconnected from everything. When a foggy morning (cloyingly humid and
chilling to the bone) found him wandering the streets, there no longer were any
thoughts or desires. The blades in his mind turned slowly and sang softly – a
quiet lullaby of steel in a murky world that was silently happy to have him in
it.

###

In a way, Luvia singling him out for some reason was fortunate: the
girl had had a lot more rounded out education than him, and she was a rare
breed of modern Magus: despite not aspiring to become an Enforcer of Sealing
Designations, she was interested in using Mysteries for combat. The Edelfelts
were a mercenary family. He supposed he got lucky, because even among the
faculty very few were at least a bit polite toward him. Best case scenario, most
Magi flat-out ignored him.

Luvia, however, was different. There is always a respect among professionals
of any craft and even if the Edelfelts weren't focusing on ruthless, calculated
assassination as the Magus Killer had done, they still didn't mind getting
their hands dirty and focused very much on using jewel-based Mysteries to curse
someone half-to-death. Of course, people tended to resist when you tried to
incapacitate them, so this led to techniques geared toward killing. Whether murder
actually happened or not depended solely on the target's competence.

This was their subject of conversation as they sat in an empty
corner of a cafeteria eating lunch. Due to the Clock Tower mostly being an
underground labyrinth of awkward corridors and weirdly shaped rooms the complex
had several places you could eat. Add the fact that most Magi valued their time
far too much (and their health – far too little) to chew properly and the fact
that the place was pretty exclusive… All in all, there weren't that many people
and everyone worked irregular hours and thus had lunch at a different time. It
was difficult to catch a lot of Magi in one spot, unless you really tried to or
something big was happening.

Luvia was going through one of her signature rants, gesticulating
wildly with a French fry:

"I mean, a little appreciation would not hurt. We do all the dirty
work, families like hours. Sure, we get paid well: my family invests in gems,
mostly. Did Kiritsugu leave you much money?"

Shirou had discovered early on that directness never particularly
bothered him in people. Saved time and helped avoid misunderstandings.

"Yes, quite a bit. My type of practice requires a lot of money for
materials and items too: I'm happy I have Dietrich to help decide what to get."

Luvia grinned:

"I cannot believe I've found a Magus who wants to both make weapon
Mystic Codes and use them and not be an Enforcer for the Association. Not that
I don't think people who wade through a sea of undead and burn that and other
such filth to ashes don't do an important job… It's just: if you have the
power, try and combine earning money with trying to do some good, helping a
little."

Shirou was a little distracted by how terrible the stew he was
eating tasted but he perked up at where the conversation was going:

"You think it's not enough to cut out obvious evil?"

The girl shook her head:

"Look, my family has been doing this for a very, very long time.
Sure, some things just need to die but in most places where there is great
injustice or where monsters take up residence, things are not that simple.
Since you are so nitpicky about history… There is this great discussion in
mundane history regarding whether a single person can really leave a
significant mark on the long-term state of things. Do you know how many
examples there are when that really happened? When somebody not simply filled a
role that needed to be filled but really stepped out and did something that was
considered impossible with truly lasting repercussions?"

"How many?"

"Two. Two times: with Alexander the Conqueror and Genghis Khan. One
spread the Hellenic culture to territories where there was none, the other –
the Asian values. Literally took the weakest of the barbarian Mongol tribes and
built an empire that spanned a continent and left a huge imprint on the culture
of Asia and Eastern Europe."

"What about Napoleon, the Founding Fathers, Tokugawa Shogunate? Legends
like Zelretch, for that matter?"

"Well, our history has more such figures, obviously. Mostly because
of the level of power some Magi, Mages, Dead Apostles and others can wield
personally. But most historical shifts are a thing of necessity: the society
needs a dictatorship to survive and a dictator appears. It outgrows that stage
and the regime is disposed of, one way or another. Advances in the study of
Magecraft are similar: a lot of time about the same conclusions are
independently reached by rival families."

"Interesting."

"What I'm saying, my darling Shirou, is that injustice, cruelty and
evil fill a vacant spot in a society. There are people too blind to bother to
check whether they are being exploited or fed upon. Areas where Magi think they
can just shut off from the world and work on their pet projects all the while
darkness encroaches upon their territory. People openly desiring violence and
chaos to give meaning to the dullness of their lives. And no matter how many
times you kill the ones occupying that spot, a new monster will always take
their place. Our employers are rarely smart enough to hire us to do something
about the spot itself, which is why people like us or Enforcers? We will never
run out of work."

Shirou paused, thinking of one Kotomine Kirei, the empty, cruel man
that he had heard only bad things about, both from Tohsaka and his father.

"But what if there is a man, whose only delight is orchestrating the
suffering of others?"

"Oh, my darling, I'm not saying you should move to a monastery and
spend your life meditating on the lotus or some other such tripe. By all means,
do what you can to improve the lives of those around you: maybe the state of
things actually calls for a change and you will be able to do some good. I
mean, it's one thing to look at the history of humanity in the terms of
hundreds or thousands of years but another thing entirely to live a life. It
doesn't matter to history whether the needed change happens today or ten years
from now but it matters to us."

Shirou cocked his head a little:

"You are much deeper than you look, Luvia-san."

The girl blushed a little, laughed haughtily and quickly returned to
talking about how great her family was.

###

"Wait, your friend uses what?"

"Bugs. Insects. Creepy crawlies. Her family can do a bunch of stuff
with it, including implantation and being a host to a swarm. Works like extra
Circuits from what I figure."

"Ewww. Just… ewww. Talk about needing protection for a date. That's why
I love gems, beside the fact that they are the most beautiful thing in the
world, of course. No one would be dumb enough to put one inside and have it
shatter. Although, now that I think about it…"

"You are weird, Luvia-san."

###

Shirou got his first tour of the Clock Tower armory when he was
fifteen. It took him and Waver forever to get the needed permissions: the new
Lord El-Melloi had to be subtle about pushing for greater access for his
protégé and Shirou himself had to work extra hard during the time he spent in
England. Intensive study of Mystic Codes, sucking up to the faculty,
recommendations from both Dietrich and Waver and just one and a half year after
going to London for the first time he was finally shown the less secret items
the combat-specialized Magi of the Association used to bring in those that were
deemed too dangerous to live without being Sealed and clean up the messes such
Magi tended to leave.

To be honest, Shirou had been worried they wouldn't make it in time.
Normally it took about five years of general studies for a full-time student to
even start pursuing specialized studies with one of the Departments at the
Tower – an amount of time they certainly didn't have. Add to this the fact that
there were only about sixty people in the entire Association that really
focused on using Magecraft for destruction and the fact that the items stored
at the armory were ones they couldn't risk getting stolen from their personal
workshops and you could understand why the teen didn't have much hope for
seeing the inside of those walls during his first decade or so in Britain.

It was mostly due to Waver slowly turning the Department of Modern
Magecraft Theories into a power to be reckoned with (and also in no small part
because of the vice-director being friendly-ish with him on occasion) that
parties of power at the Association suddenly wanted to have him in their debt.
Helping Shirou, the adopted son of the nefarious Magus Killer, was a good idea
to get some black into their books without too much cost to themselves.

Bazett Fraga led the tour, which Shirou was grateful for. He did
very little in London except study anything combat or Holy Grail-related and
have physical training. He had met Fraga maybe a year before that point, during
one of his workout sessions with Luvia: the girl had far better unarmed combat
technique which made him push his Reinforcement to its absolute limit. There
were other people training or doing light spars in the room at that time but
only the Irish Enforcer spotted exactly how different his level of
Reinforcement was from Luvia's. By that point Shirou had long since moved past
strengthening only his muscles: he and Dietrich had found a way to toughen
bones, and to make skin more resistant to damage. One of the very few
achievements he was personally proud of was being able to Reinforce his eyes:
traditionally, Magi avoided going near their sensory organs with Mysteries, quite
reasonably fearful of going deaf or blind. It was one thing to end up with a
deep scar in your thigh, and another entirely – to have said scar where your
eyes used to be.

Anyway, Bazett picked up on how Shirou's Reinforcement went way
beyond what was thought reasonable and, he assumed, that was what had sparked
the interest that later evolved into a kind of light partnership. Sure, the
woman's skills were leaps and bounds above his own but he, at least, had
something to give. The Irish Enforcer favored Runes and turning her clothes
into Mystic Codes, which was deeply interesting to Shirou: he had no doubt he
would need all the protection he could get during the coming War and stopping
things with enchanted apparel of some sort sounded much better than doing it
with his ribcage.

Bazett was also one of his channels for distributing what he knew
about the problems with the Grail System among the people living at the Tower.
The second was Luvia, who was reasonably good at gossip among students. Getting
the message across to the Enforcer was more important, though, in case the
Association sent another Lord or a professional combat Magus when the Grail War
came. He had to be careful not to reveal too much about how the Grail had been
cursed in order to keep the Tower from doing something very stupid and
dangerous with Fuyuki ley lines, but he could share what his father knew about
the Church being very far from impartial during the previous War. At the very
least, he needed to minimize Kotomine Kirei's influence during the next
conflict.

Overall, it was a messy situation and the only reason he hadn't
flunked the tests he took and been booted out of the Clock Tower was because of
Dietrich tutelage. They had mostly covered the first years of study and even if
Shirou's education had holes the size of Primate Murder's eye in it, it was
enough to pass the tests they had. Which meant he really had no excuse not to
try and get allies at the Tower, no matter how much he hated politics.

"I've looked into Kotomine Kirei despite my better judgement. There
is nothing suspicious about him, except for the early retirement from being an
Executor."

While they talked, Shirou walked around the dim-lit room, using
structural analysis on anything he saw. There were at least a hundred Codes on
the shelves and some of the more prominent ones were displayed in glass cases.

"This sword is weird. Can't quite get what it does…"

"Good eyes, Shirou. It's called the Blade of Limited Perspective, it
can be used to manifest the metaphorical bonds between Master and Familiar into
physical strings of Prana and cut them."

"Sounds useful."

The teen leaned towards the case and started tracing his fingers
along the surface, lips moving silently as he absorbed everything he could
about the sword.

"Do you think it can be used to sever a bond between a Master and a
Servant."

Bazett simply snorted:

"You are too smart to ask such a question. From what I've looked up
that bond is far more than just Mana flow. At best it will cut the Mana stream
for a minute or two before it is reformed. As Heroic Spirits have their own
consciousness and can all survive for hours without an external power source…
Won't do much good."

"Hmm. So only normal familiars. Doesn't seem that useful now. Why
was it created then?"

"As a potential countermeasure against Nrvnqsr Chaos."

"I remember this from one of the lectures… The Dead Apostle Ancestor
that is made up of 666 Beasts?"

"Was made up. The very same, but he is reported dead now, which is
why this weapon is in a glass case and not on a shelf – it's an exhibit, not a
weapon. Anyway, about Kotomine?"

"Of course you didn't find anything. Among the Masters of the
previous war only Kotomine Kirei himself and Waver El Melloi still live. And
because the overseer was Kotomine's father, naturally, nothing suspicious went
on record."

"Sounds awfully convenient."

"I can always arrange for you to check with Lord El Melloi."

"How did you get such pull with him anyway?"

"It's more the other way around, actually. Back to the previous
point: during the last War and entire block of Fuyuki got burned to the ground
and at one point there was a building-sized monster threatening to destroy the
town."

"Sounds like a plot to ‘Godzilla'. There is a mention of that disaster
in the records: extra incentive was promised for disposing of the Master of
Caster, if I'm not mistaken."

"Right. And the Servant that destroyed it? Nobody actually saw him
die."

At this point Shirou had to stop talking as his brain was starting
to overheat: the spacious room around him stood a testament to the imagination
and resourcefulness of Magi. While most of them were nowhere near as powerful
as, say, Dead Apostles (freakish exceptions like the current vice-director
didn't count), mystics compensated by being prepared. Inside their own
workshop, with a supply of Prana and charged up Mystic Codes a Magus could be
quite dangerous indeed even to the most horrifying of monsters.

Only about a third of the items there were bladed weapons of some
sort and so only they could be directly used through Tracing. He still examined
the rest, however, for interesting effects. Most were pretty straightforward:
clothes with added protection against piercing and fire, weapons that caught on
flame when you channeled Mana into them… A heavy cloak got his attention.

"What does this one do?"

"They called them Cloaks of Invisibility back in the day. Doesn't
make you truly invisible but does a pretty good job of suppressing smell, sound
and diffusing you Mana signature all over the place."

"So, ambush tool?"

"Something like that. Why do you insist on telling me all this about
the Holy Grail War? Honestly, I couldn't care less."

"The last time the Association sent a representative. There is no reason
why this time will be any different, with only three founding families there
are four spots open. It's likely I will participate as I am pretty much a
product of the last War. When the time comes I would like whoever comes to
Japan from here to keep their eyes open: there is much more wrong with the
whole system than I can tell you…"

"And why is that?"

"It's unsubstantiated, at best. There isn't much I can prove but
don't you think it's strange how we haven't heard of a wish really getting
fulfilled despite there having been, what, four Wars already? Makes you wonder
whether the system has been tempered with to serve some other purpose."

"Hm. You know, I've worked with your father a time or two. At first
I didn't quite see it but now the resemblance between you and him is quite
clear. In the paranoia."

"Thank you."

###

Cooking was one of the things Shirou really enjoyed along with
archery, mathematics and, of course, Magecraft. This combination of interests
didn't do much good when it came to getting friends his own age. Issei didn't
count as he pretty much despised people who built a certain reputation simply
for the sake of social status – there was a certain irony that the president of
the student council cared this much about authenticity. It was also the reason why
you couldn't get Ryuudou and Tohsaka into the same room without inviting a
torrent of thinly-veiled barbs upon everyone in the vicinity.

Anyway, Shirou liked things with structure, logic and laws that
could be explored, if not directly derived. In his spare time he read some
philosophy and decided that he was both a rationalist and an empirist. The
first part really shone when he solved math problems as there was no room for
chance there; the second – when he cooked. Cooking was a thing of intuition, of
course, but to him it was, above all, an empiric science. The teen kept
meticulous journals detailing each particular composition of ingredients, each
process he applied, each dish he cooked, how it tasted and his thoughts as to
why he got that particular taste, odor, and appearance.

And when Shirou got into the zone there was very little that could
bring him out of his concentration, no matter whether it was Magecraft, cooking,
or simply homework.

For his fourteenth birthday Dietrich did a pretty solid attempt of
convincing his apprentice to celebrate it at a restaurant for a change but, for
the most part, failed. As a compromise, Shirou decided to go out with Shinji
the day before the main celebration: by then he was reasonably sure that
putting Sakura in one room with her brother when it wasn't absolutely necessary
was not a very good idea. Actually, Sakura pretty much never spoke of her
family and when she did her emotions where mixed at best.

So they went out. Shinji somehow got a pair of classmates to go with
them, rented out a karaoke and smuggled some booze inside. There was something
fascinating about how his friend just plowed on in complete disregard for what
would make Shirou himself comfortable. All the more impressive because it was
actually his birthday. Overall it was weird, awkward and quite a bit
embarrassing when they had to leave and Shinji was swaying on his feet
(somehow, Emiya kept the girls from drinking anything beyond one sip which only
led to Matou getting even more drunk). Thankfully for Shirou, the party had
lasted several hours and Avalon helped combat the slow trickle of alcohol: he
couldn't let the other boy drink all of it or he'd have to carry his drunk
friend back to his household. And he didn't want to see just why Sakura was that
scared of her grandfather.

The main celebration was the next day, which happened to be a
weekend. As Shirou didn't remember anything form his early childhood, his
birthday held a more symbolic significance – his father and him could think of
nothing better than to place it on the day he was found in the fire.

Sakura had arrived about three hours in advance, having brought a
dress with her. In that quiet manner she possessed, the girl donned an apron
and assisted Shirou with practiced ease. The cake had been made the day before
but everything else needed to be either warm or fresh by the point the other
guests arrived (it took a fair bit of convincing to make sure Taiga didn't show
up early and gobble up all the food into that bottomless interdimensional rift
she called her stomach).

As is often the norm for celebrations in Japan, they cooked meat. To
show off, Shirou had picked pleskavitsa as the main course – a sort of
traditional Serbian patty, made from processed meat, onions, hard cheese and
fresh basil.

His friend tsk-ed as she tried to chop the cheese into tiny, equal
cubes.

"This is... annoying, senpai. I know the knife is sharp but it
doesn't cut."

"You shouldn't use an ordinary knife for cheese. Because the surface
is completely flat it creates a sort of suction and gets stuck. Try a knife
with a saw-like blade, the one we sometimes use for small bones? It's on the
right."

The girl laughed in embarrassment, pouted and her cheeks went
slightly pink:

"And just when I thought I had you beat at Western foods, senpai."

Her tone was light and teasing but Shirou's reply was level and
direct, as was his habit when he was working.

"Honestly, I think you have better intuition for cooking than me.
But that's irrelevant, Sakura: you are good for an amateur but if you want to
move beyond that level, you need to keep a journal detailing what kind of
ingredients you use, how much, what type of processing you subject them to.
We've been through this. Your family is rich, right? Get a camera and a tripod,
record how you cook so you can fast-forward later."

Sakura actually giggled at this.

"You forget most Magi don't use electronics. If my grandfather still
has a heart he might have a heart attack. And you don't use a camera, senpai."

"I have very good memory. I just record everything after I'm done
cooking. But I do use a kitchen scale, even when I think I can guess the right
quantity and a timer for all the baking, boiling and cooking and stuff.
Improvement requires experimentation."

Sakura just shook her head and kept working, speaking up again only
after a couple minutes of relative silence passed.

"Here, the cheese is done. You know, I envy you, senpai. You
approach Magecraft exactly the same way, don't you? Always dragging a huge
journal to lessons, reference books… double-checking everything Dietrich
teaches us. You actually made Tohsaka-senpai study more than she did by
herself, you know that? She doesn't say anything but I think she's mad that you
have somehow got access to the Clock Tower."

"She really shouldn't be. Not like I want to be there: it's a
necessity."

"Which only makes her more mad. But I think it's good for her: she
told me she has already finished the basic curriculum that that priest had for
her and is now working more on Elemental Mysteries."

"Good. She will need it soon."

"We need to tell her."

Stopping the process of mixing the mincemeat with the other
ingredients, Shirou sighed.

"Look, we've been through this, alright? I personally don't see a
problem with telling her the truth but Dietrich thinks it will be too much. Her
father gave her life, sacrificed his family, left a mansion and a household in
the hands of the man who probably had him killed – and for what? Right now she
thinks it was to reach the Root. I'm not the biggest expert on psychology but isn't
it what keeps her going? Should we tell her that is was all a great joke and
the only way the Grail would fulfill such a wish would be by wiping a couple
cities off the map to gather the necessary energy?"

Sakura was looking at her clasped hands, refusing to look Shirou in
the eye. Her answer came in such a small voice that somebody less observant
wouldn't have caught it.

"He was my father too, you know."

The boy rubbed the bridge of his nose in what had become a bad habit
of his. Was it too much to think that at least on his birthday his life would
be free of curveballs and complications.

"I had my suspicions. You two smell almost the same."

This time Sakura had no problem with meeting his eyes: she looked at
him for a few seconds, completely flabbergasted, and then laughed heartily.

"Do we? Who needs paternity tests when you have Shirou Emiya and his
magical nose."

The boy couldn't help but cringe: it was bad enough Tohsaka had been
making fun of the way he perceived Mana but to have Sakura join in too…

"No, no, I'm sorry, senpai. It is kind of a sore point but what's in
the past is in the past."

And she smiled a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

Right... I'd need to braindead and mindfucked to believe her. But
that is a topic I'm not bringing up today. Maybe not ever.

Dietrich was out doing some sort of ‘preparations' and Tohsaka was
the next to arrive with Issei hot on her heels.

"I'm telling you, if you actually got involved even an evil witch
like you could do some good… I mean, what is the point of being the best in
your grade if you plan to go into family business after school?"

"I could ask you the very same thing, Issei-kun."

"No, no, no! Don't try to turn this around, you vixen! I want to
become a monk to inspire and help people! A student council president is a good
preparation for that and what good of an inspiration would I be if my grades
weren't one of the best? And I tutor and help other students. What is it that
your family does, anyway?"

"Mainly, owns land."

"How the hell is that even a job? It's like saying you grow grass
for a living."

It was at this point that they stepped into the main room and Shirou
greeted his friends from kitchen:

"Hi, Issei, Tohsaka. Can't you two cut it out? At least today?
Please?"